Cards speak ("for themselves") is used in two poker contexts:
First, it is used to describe a high-low split game without a declaration. That is, in a cards speak game, players all reveal their hands at the showdown, and whoever has the highest hand wins the high half of the pot and whoever has the lowest hand wins the low half.
The other context is as a house rule in casino cardrooms. "Cards speak" means that any verbal declaration as to the content of a player’s hand is not binding. If Mary says she has no pair, but in fact she has a flush, her cards speak and her hand is viewed for its genuine value, that of a flush. Likewise if John says he has a flush, but in fact he does not, his hand is judged on its actual merits, not his verbal declaration. At the discretion of management, any player miscalling his hand may have that hand fouled, but this is not required.
The "cards speak" rule does not address the awarding of a pot, player responsibilities, or the similar one player to a hand rule. It merely means that verbal statements do not make a hand value. The cards do.
Famous quotes containing the words cards and/or speak:
“Oft have I played at cards and dice,
Because they were so enticing;
But this is a sad and sorrowful day
To see my apron rising.”
—Unknown. The Rantin Laddie (l. 1–4)
“A song is no song unless the circumstance is free and fine. If a singer sing from a sense of duty or from seeing no way to escape, I had rather have none. Those only can sleep who do not care to sleep; and those only write or speak best who do not too much respect the writing or the speaking.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)